Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

We’ll be closing our live feed shortly. Here’s a recap of what we’ve been digging into today.

• Overnight Israel launched a wave of strikes along the Yemeni coastline. We found videos and images purporting to be last night’s attack, but actually showing past events. We’ve also been tracking the movements of a vessel which came under attack in the Red Sea yesterday - the Houthi rebel group based in Yemen has now claimed responsibility.

• Plus, we’ve been taking a closer look at whether budget cuts announced by the Trump administration had an impact on weather agencies ahead of the Texas floods.

This evening our late team will be examining those claims and counterclaims in more detail, working closely with our colleagues in the US.

In the meantime you can visit our main live page for the latest updates on the flooding and rescue operations.

Shruti Menon & Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Verify

Image source, Getty Images

This morning the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed it had struck Galaxy Leader, a vessel seized by the Houthi movement in November 2023.

The vessel was being held at the Al Jazirah port in Yemen. Satellite imagery from 6 July confirms Galaxy Leader was docked there.

A satellite system, called Nasa FIRMS, detected a heat anomaly at the same location around the same time the strikes were reported.

However, there is no visual confirmation - either from satellite imagery or social footage showing that the vessel was hit.

The ship had become a symbol of Houthi resistance in the Red Sea. Google Photos show the ship had turned into a local landmark and tourist attraction with people walking on the deck and taking selfies with the boat from the shore.

We are continuing to monitor the situation and will update when new satellite imagery or footage emerges.

Simran Sohal
BBC Verify

Image source, PA Media

Conservative MP Esther McVey , externalhas , externalposted on X, external that the Labour government has a “vendetta against pensioners”.

It came after some newspapers criticised the government for apparently ruling out exempting the state pension from income tax.

It’s becoming a contentious issue because the state pension is rising in line with the triple lock but the point at which people start paying income tax is frozen.

Under the triple lock system, the state pension increases every year by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5%. Those who receive the full level of the new state pension receive £11,973 this year.

The personal allowance for income tax is fixed at £12,570 until 2028. This means that somebody whose only income comes from that full state pension is likely to have to start paying income tax on part of it before 2028.

Ben Chu
BBC Verify policy and analysis correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The Trump administration has proposed cuts, external of about 25% to the cash budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is the parent agency of the National Weather Service (NWS).

Five former NWS directors in May 2025 published an open letter, external warning that the consequences of these proposed cuts could be “needless loss of life”.

However, the specific budget cuts cited in the letter have not taken effect yet, as they would be implemented in the 2026 financial year, which begins on 1 October 2025.

So those cuts can’t have directly contributed to the Texas tragedy.

However, the staffing levels of NWS have already been separately reduced by the Trump administration's efficiency drive, implemented since he returned to the White House in January 2025.

Reports suggest, external 550 of the total 4,800 NWS employees had left as of 15 May, equivalent to around 11% of the workforce, either through layoffs or staff taking voluntary redundancy.

Those staffing cuts could theoretically have had a negative impact on the NWS performance and some NWS employees had warned of their potential impact on safety.

But - at this stage - we don’t have evidence to show if they contributed to the Texas tragedy.

And meteorologists have told US media outlets that the NWS flood warnings last week in Texas were as timely and adequate as could be expected or were possible.

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Reuters

There is an urgent question in the House of Commons this afternoon from shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride about the government’s performance against its fiscal rules.

The government’s fiscal rules, external are that in 2029-30:

• Its day-to-day spending should be covered by its revenue, so it will only borrow money to invest
• Overall government debt should be falling as a proportion of the size of the economy.

There is also what is known as the welfare cap, external, which limits the amount that the government can spend on certain benefits and tax credits.

You would normally only expect to get an update on whether the government is on track to meet these rules at a fiscal event such as a budget.

The government’s recent U-turns on disability benefits and winter fuel payments mean that the government looks less likely to meet its targets, so organisations including the Institute for Fiscal Studies, external say that tax rises are “increasingly likely”.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

Image source, MarineTraffic

A Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, Magic Seas, came under attack on Sunday in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen. In the last hour the Houthi rebel group has claimed responsibility.

The attack involved small arms fire, self-propelled grenades and missiles - tactics previously used by Houthis against commercial shipping passing along the Yemeni coastline.

Vanguard Tech, a maritime risk company, said fire and flooding caused the crew to abandon ship. All 22 people onboard are now safe, according to the EU Naval Force, which was involved in the rescue.

The last recorded position of Magic Seas - according to vessel tracking site MarineTraffic- was sent at 17:00 local time (15:00 BST) on Sunday, and showed it west of the Yemeni port of Hudaydah.

Magic Seas had started its journey from Zhuhai in China on 11 June, and its tracking data showed its recorded destination as the Suez Canal, with no onwards details.

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, the Houthis have regularly launched missiles at Israel and attacked ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Magic Seas is owned by Allseas Marine. A second bulk carrier affiliated with this company is currently docked at Ashdod in Israel, according to MarineTraffic data. Vanguard Tech has identified two further ships linked to Allseas Marine that visited Israeli ports in April and June last year.

“These factors put the Magic Seas at an extreme risk of being targeted,” Vanguard said.

BBC Verify has contacted Allseas Marine for comment.

Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist

Demolition work is under way in one of the few areas in Rafah, southern Gaza, where most buildings were still standing.

Satellite imagery reveals that dozens of buildings in the Saudi neighbourhood, a residential area in the city’s northwest, have been destroyed in recent days.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of satellite pictures. The one on the right was taken on Saturday, with the left taken one month ago. The latest image shows rubble and dust where buildings once stood - highlighted by the white boxes.

Image source, Planet Labs PBC

These are likely to be demolitions rather than air strikes because this is an area held by the IDF for some time and in other areas where they have operational control there have frequently been videos showing controlled detonations.

The pace and comprehensive nature of the destruction, as well as local, external reports, external of buildings in the neighbourhood being blown up tallies with this.

The neighbourhood was built by the Saudi Rehousing Project - a partnership between the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) and Saudi Arabia. The project's aim was to provide houses for people displaced as a result of previous conflict with Israel.

It was only opened in 2015, external, and was home to around 10,000 people.

Kumar Malhotra
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, X

Some dramatic footage has been shared online of rapidly rising waters in the Llano river in Texas, some 100km (62 miles) north-east of the Camp Mystic area on the Guadalupe River, where there were a number of fatalities.

One video – which is date-stamped 4 July - shows how a road and shallow bridge over the river were completely submerged by a torrent of gushing water.

On 6 July, another video was posted, external showing people filming by a road with very similar features to that seen in the first video, as surging floodwater approaches.

In this video, a route sign – Ranch Road 3404 - can clearly be seen. This helped us locate it to a spot just outside Kingsland, which is north-west of the state capital, Austin, and by the Llano river.

Using Google Maps to look at the streets, we matched the layout of the road, the features of the bridge and surrounding vegetation to what we see in both videos.

Thomas Spencer
BBC Verify researcher

We are looking at videos that have begun to surface on social media in the wake of Israeli air strikes on Yemen.

However, we found that one video, that has gained over 17,000 views on X, in fact originates from a previous post earlier this year.

A reverse image search of the video found it had previously been posted on an Instagram account on the 30 April 2025.

This old footage appears to show port facilities ablaze with an onlooker commenting in the video.

Genuine footage can of course be reposted by mistake online, so searches such as this are key to spotting where footage has been misattributed.

From our previous work monitoring world events, we also know that back in April, the US and the UK, external launched air strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen around then.

Image source, X

Anthony Reuben
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

You can contact BBC Verify with your questions, which you can send us via this page.

Mick from Leeds asked: “I would like you to investigate the Labour government’s repeated claims that they have delivered 4,000,000 additional hospital appointments, compared to their promise to [deliver] 2,000,000 in the last 12 months.”

Last year’s Labour manifesto promised “40,000 more appointments every week”, which is two million a year.

The pledge just covers England. The NHS releases special statistics to judge whether the target has been met, which you can find here, external.

The data only covers elective appointments, so that’s planned, non-emergency services, including things like tests and scans, outpatient appointments and surgery.

The target does appear to have been met. The four million extra appointments is actually for the first nine months of the new government, July 2024 to March 2025, compared with July 2023 to March 2024.

Correction 8 July 2025: This post has been updated to remove a reference to cancer care, which is not part of this particular target for extra appointments.

Kumar Malhotra
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

As rescuers continue to search for those missing in flash floods in Texas, we’re looking into claim and counterclaims that cuts as part of the Trump administration’s plans to reduce bureaucracy may have impacted staffing at the National Weather Service (NWS) - the government agency responsible for forecasts and warnings.

One post, external blamed funding cuts to the NWS.

President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have denied that reductions to federal government spending had left “key vacancies” at the NWS.

We’ll be looking into what cuts were planned, whether they had been implemented and to which services.

Emma Pengelly
BBC Verify journalist

On Sunday night an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said on X it was issuing an evacuation notice affecting four locations along the Yemen coast - three ports and a power station - ahead of airstrikes on what it called areas “under the control of the terrorist Houthi regime”.

Seventy minutes later the IDF said the sites had been struck and among the targets was the Galaxy Leader ship. , externalIt was hijacked in November 2023 at the beginning of the Houthis’ campaign of attacks on Red Sea shipping.

We’re seeing videos posted to social media of fire filmed in the hours of darkness purporting to show the result of the strikes, and are currently working to verify what they show and where they were filmed.

Earlier on Sunday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a ship came under attack 51 nautical miles of the port of Hudaydah in the Red Sea forcing the crew to abandon ship. We’ll be looking for satellite imagery and other open source data to shed light on what happened.

We’ll bring you more details when we have them.

Tom Edgington
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning and welcome to today’s BBC Verify Live page.

Throughout the day my colleagues and I will be guiding you through our verification work.

We’ll be setting out how we use open-sources to help us report on conflicts when access to the ground is limited, and where we counter misinformation and carry out fact-checks.

This morning, the team is looking at several stories:

• Following the devastating floods in Texas, which have left at least 81 dead, we’re looking at claim and counterclaims that cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) have impacted weather forecasting
• The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) says it struck ports and a power station in Yemen. We’re attempting to verify social media footage

If you've seen something you think BBC Verify should investigate then contact us via this form.